Action is needed now for North-east rail infrastructure; Commercial Feature in association with PD Ports.

WITH the festive season seeming no more than a distant memory, PD Ports, like many businesses in the Tees Valley region is already progressing with its key projects for 2009.

One of the port's primary objectives in 2009 is to continue to lobby for improvements to the Tees Valley East Coast Mainline (ECML) rail network. Necessary upgrades are vital to enable PD Ports enhance its current capability to handle increasing volumes of hi-cube containers for customers such as Asda and Tesco.

While a recent minor success has enabled a few modern high cube taller containers to be taken by rail to Scotland, this is only an intermediate solution. PD Ports remain concerned to see investment for improved rail gauge for ECML and Transpennine routes being authorised by DfT to Network Rail as soon as possible.

According to Network Rail, the average freight train can remove 50 HGVs from the UK's roads and compared to road transport, rail is a much more environmentally friendly transport option producing five to 10 times fewer emissions. On top of the reduced emissions, freight trains can also help cut road congestion and reduce damage to road surfaces. Yet despite the obvious benefits of moving freight by rail, misdirection in the way our rail network is treated, especially in relation to an overloading of the southern rail routes, has reached crisis levels.

What is needed is better use of rail for freight over shorter, (less than 100 miles) and not just longer (over 200+ miles). By using regional ports such as Teesport with its good rail links the potential exists to significantly reduce road miles. But there is a major snag to securing the environmental benefits of rail.

"While shipping lines and importers increasingly favour the use of modern, taller containers, many of the UK's key freight rail routes are not able to handle them, greatly reducing the use of rail as a viable alternative to road transport," explains Martyn Pellew, group development director of PD Ports.

"We want to maximise the use of rail to move containers inland, but our efforts are being severely impaired by the current gauge restrictions."

PD Ports' terminal at Teesport, currently handles around 13 trains per day. However, following approval of the port's plans for the NGCT, rail transport is set to greatly increase, eventually leading to an additional 10 trains per-day. While these extra train paths are available using the current infrastructure, it will not be possible to transport the increasingly popular high cube containers on standard height rail wagons.

While high cube containers can be transported on special wagons, the higher capital costs of special wagons and the reduced payload can increase operating costs, which many businesses are unwilling to accept. To maintain rail freight's cost effectiveness, the Government must upgrade the rail infrastructure on strategic freight routes to and from UK ports.

By 2010, it is estimated that half of all containers coming into the UK from deep sea destinations will be the 9ft 6ins high cube variety. When built, the NGCT will be capable of unloading vessels of between 6,000 and 9,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent sized container) and the ability to offer cost-effective rail transport from the port to key regional distribution centres across Scotland and the north of England will be vital to the project's success.

"The NGCT is good for the north and good for the UK as a whole. By importing containers into Teesport, retailers and shippers can significantly reduce the UK's carbon footprint by reducing the distance containers have to travel by land. By ensuring cost effective rail transport services for onward delivery from the port, further carbon emissions are removed from the supply chain."

"The UK Government cannot continue to neglect the North-east and the ECML any longer, as this area clearly represents the most logical place for change to begin. Investment in the ECML now represents an opportunity for the UK Government to act with responsible and decisive vision," concluded Pellew.

Rail gauge enhancement made simple

Step 1: The dimensions of a rail vehicle and its load are measured by a series of heights and width profiles that are known as "loading gauge". The gauge on any particular rail route is assessed to ensure that a railway vehicle will not collide with structures such as platforms, overbridges or tunnels. Carrying containers by rail requires taller trains than for passenger services. For example the loading gauge on the Tees Valley rail link to ECML is only W8 gauge whilst the northern sections of the ECML are W9. Both W8 and W9 gauge can allow traditional 8'6" containers to travel on standard height rail wagons.

Step 2: A modern 9'6" inter-modal container carried on a standard height rail wagon requires a loading gauge known as W10. An increasing proportion of maritime containers are this taller height having previously been only 8ft 6ins or 9ft in height. Hence the need for rail gauge enhancement on much of UK's old Victorian era railways.

Step 3: Swap bodies, which are containers that can be carried by both lorry and train, require a loading gauge wider and taller than for intermodal containers. This is known as W12 gauge and therefore W12 is the preferred standard for rail routes being enhanced to accommodate future container rail freight traffic.

CAPTION(S):

These sketches demonstrate the implications of a container passing along a line which did not have the right rail gauge for modern, taller containers